Interview with Don Chamberlin, designer of SQL | Hacker News Reader

Interview with Don Chamberlin, designer of SQL

mappingthejourney.com

68 pointspramodhs14 comments

Disappointingly low on technical detail... For me the most interesting part of an interview with the original author of some well-established technology is when he or she is discussing something that you take for granted and says something along the lines of "oh, that thing is more of a historical accident, I would design it a bit differently today". These nuggets can really broaden your perspective, but I couldn't find any of them in this interview.

that's because SQL is perfect obviously /kids

That's a problem with a lot of interviews. Journalists almost always go for the "human" side but I enjoy reading about the technical evolution and how things developed.

I just read a book about the development of windows NT. Same thing, a lot about people but not much about technical stuff.

I think the main nugget is that they took Codds powerful mathematical system for defining and manipulating relations and created a simpler way to interface with it through the English keywords SELECT FROM WHERE.

I see a similar thing happening in Elm, as it tries to translate Haskell/ML ideas into simpler concepts without all of the category theory.

As someone who uses SQL extensively every day at my job, I really appreciate the thought that went into it's design. It is by far the most sane part of what I do every day.

Completely agree! Although most of the developers I interface with look at me like I'm an alien. So I don't know if SQL being the sanest part of my day is a point for SQL or a point against the general sanity of my day.

what dialect of sql you find yourself in? I try to keep my env to pl/pgsql and like some pl/python on the side.

Took an undergrad comp sci class taught by Don Chamberlin at UCSC in 2009. He is a fascinating professor!

I've been subscribed to this podcast since his 2nd or 3rd episode. He's had some interesting guests.

I think the podcast is a one-man show. He could probably use some help with mixing/production (and a new intro theme), but for a one-man show it's pretty darn good.

Edit: I'm an idiot and just realized OP is the podcaster.

Thank You. Yes, I'm a one-man army and would use some help. Finding interesting guests have not been hard but doing this week after week has been hectic, but I love it. Maybe someday I can run the podcast as a team.

Well considering you're doing it all by yourself, you are doing an awesome job! I look forward to each new interview. I like that you give the guests time to provide an in-depth answer without peppering them with too many questions.

When you're a famous podcaster you can do a Mapping the Journey episode about Mapping the Journey! :)

I was glad for a transcript!

I find it interesting that the technology of the time meant it was hard to write ∀ and ∃ (though APL users seemed to go OK) and so they chose a complex syntax that reminds me of COBOL. The early database applications were business applications (SABRE being #1 I believe) so this wouldn't have been at all an unreasonable basis for SQL's syntax.

Mr. Chamberlin was my dad's roommate at Harvey Mudd and worked with him at IBM. It amazes him how much Sequel runs the world now.

One thing I thought about after reading this interview was just how much these grassroots projects (at the time) were done just as a labor of love. Also, just how free companies were with information. Publish a paper and share it with the world.

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